On the Road Again

The convention season is just beginning. As I write this, I'm about to take my longest convention trip ever . . . to Paris. No, not Paris, Texas. France. I'll be the guest of two French game companies, Jeux Descartes and Ideojeux, who publish the French-language versions of some of our games. (No, GURPS isn't available in other languages yet. . . but give it time.)

Most of our convention trips, though, are closer to home. SJ Games staffers attend at least 20 game conventions every year (and we'd like to make more). We always attend Origins, Gencon, and Worldcon (though when it's out of the U.S., as it is this year, we're likely to hit the NASFiC instead). And we make as many other game conventions, from large to small, as we can. Sometimes it's a Big Company Presence; sometimes it's just one or two people, playing games and meeting people.

Why do we attend conventions? Several reasons. It's good publicity, and when we set up a dealer table at the big shows, we actually make some money. It's a great way to do market research. . . you can learn more by actually playing games with people and listening than you can any other way. It's also a fantastic opportunity to playtest new products. And it's a whole lot of fun.

We also try to support as many conventions as we can, even when we won't be attending. If you're holding a convention which will include tournaments in our games, send the information to our Convention Liaison. We'll almost always come through with some prizes or other useful graft.

Our convention schedule for the next few months:

March 23-25: Magnum Opus Con 5 in Greenville, SC. Monica Stephens and I will be there.
April 20-22: Swampcon 9 in Baton Rouge, LA. I will be a guest.
May 11-13: Miscon 5 in Missoula, MT. I will be a guest.
June 1-3: Springfest in Jackson, MS. I will be Gaming Guest of Honor.
June 8-10: Glathricon '90 in Evansville, IN. I will be Gaming GoH.
June 28-July 1: Origins 1990 in Atlanta, GA. Most of the SJ Games editorial staff will be there, definitely including Creede and Sharleen Lambard, Loyd Blankenship and myself.
August 7-13. GenCon in Milwaukee, WI. As for Origins, more or less.